Friday night is Crawley's annual council, which should be interesting.  Having taken control, the Tories have, apparently, offered a couple of committee chairs and the deputy mayor post to Labour, although they have, I believe, specified who they want to have those positions.

I have mixed feelings about this. For years the Tories have complained that the Labour party would not 'allow' a Tory mayor or chair of any committee.  The thing is, and this was very much a minority opinion within the Labour party and group, I agreed that we should have let them have some of the jobs, particularly in the past few years when Labour had fewer councillors to choose from.

One of the Tory slogans for the recent elections was "a brand new council and everyone's invited" and it would have given us some satisfaction I suppose if they had then forgotten all the complaints they made in opposition and just acted like us, but it looks like this is one promise they are going to be keeping.

I have always felt that the mayor's job, as a supposedly non-partisan role, should have been more fairly spread.  Many of the Labour old guard felt it was totally unacceptable to let a Tory do it while there was anyone on our side who wanted to do it, no matter how inept they may be (why else was I lined up for it in 2003?). In recent years it has been a bit of a farce, with us selecting mayors who have all done it before, when there were Tories and Lib-Dems who have been on the council for many years and would have been perfectly acceptable.  The way I understand it we have been allowed to nominate a deputy mayor but with the strong hint that they would not become mayor next year.

A lot of our members were saying that we should not nominate anyone, as it would be pointless, on the basis that deputising for a year helps 'train' someone to be mayor.  I can see the logic, although I disagree with it. There were also strong claims from many of our councillors that we should not accept the gift of committee chairs either, admittedly these claims were from those not specified as acceptable for the jobs.

The committee chairs offer makes perfect sense to me though. I think a lot of our older members baulk at being told who we can nominate, but it does look like a perfectly sensible and civilised way to arrange matters.

Basically the Tories are doing what we should have done in 2004, when we found ourselves with a very slim majority and a lot of new councillors. Obviously the executive needs to be entirely filled with the majority group, and you put your best people in there, then if you have experienced and bright opposition members who are more qualified to chair committees you let it be known to the other side that you would not oppose their nomination.

If I had been around in 2004 I would have pushed for Bob Lanzer to be offered the development control chair and for Richard Burrett to be offered the scrutiny chair, and I would have made myself extremely unpopular in the group by doing so.

Of course if I had still been in the group in 2004 it might have followed that Jim McGough would have been too, and all the numbers would have been different, and it would have been a moot point. 

Its just common sense really and so far I am ashamed to say that the Tories are actually showing some, where we did not.  It remains to be seen whether they would continue to allow Labour to chair committeesif they are still in control in 2007 and 2008 and their own councillors have some experience under their belts, but in this respect they have made a good start…

…and then they ruin it all by appointing, if the rumours I hear are true, someone who I think is a borderline racist to the community relations portfolio.  I may go down to the Town Hall for the fun and games. Obviously (and fortunately) I have not been invited to the civic reception afterwards, but the meeting itself is open to the public so I'll try and get there early enough to get a place.

I still think there is a strong chance of the council's services being cut drastically, assets sold off or placed in trusts to save costs, and the reserves being drained to mitigate council tax rises, all of which could have serious long-term implications. And I still think the new council will do everything it can to get the council housing sold off, and will attempt to cut a lot of the grants to the voluntary sector.  Being magnanimous in victory (even though it actually suits them for all sorts of reasons) may be the last chance I get to congratulate the Tories on doing something right, so I'll get it out of my system now.